In a recent blog post, Chetan Bhagath shared his updates on his new book “2 States”, new move “3 Idiots” based on his First and popular novel “Five Point Someone” and few more.

There was nothing quite surprising things as I am following him on twitter (@chetan_bhagat)and getting frequent updates. But the end of the post, it was just amazing. Here it is…

I want to end by sharing a small incident. The night before the release of 2 States, I was super tense. I went to the ISKCON temple in Chowpatty and met His Holiness Radhanath Swami, an American gentleman who moved to India several decades ago and devoted his life to serve God. I told him I couldn’t sleep because of the anxiety over the fact that there will be a million judgments on my work, both positive and negative, in the coming days. He told me this:

“Imagine there is a puddle. When it rains, the puddle is filled with water. When it doesn’t, the puddle dries up. Now compare that to the ocean. The ocean is so deep, it doesn’t matter if it rains above or it is dry weather. Your inner depth should be as much as the ocean, so you are not fazed by the external praise or criticism. For that, you must truly do work that is meaningful to you, have love in your heart for others and help people. And when you achieve inner depth, the external world’s rewards won’t matter to you as much.”

I don’t think I am as deep as the ocean yet. But I am trying. Meanwhile, I just felt I will share this with you, so you may apply it in some aspects of your life. Whatever happens outside, it doesn’t matter as much if there is a calm stillness in you.

Excellent! Hi books are always cool and I love to read it and moreover he inspires through this quick blog posts/writing like this! Great man. I respect you!

In his recent article, Scott Berkun reloaded his shot gun against micromanagers. Here I am quoting some best part of his open letter to micromanagers. You may why should I post it here. Because I hate micromanagement, absolute waste of time, energy, full of desperation, de-motivation, unbalanced team, poor culture, more pressure… Even I’ve seen some managers spoiling good culture and harmony in the team by “pressurizing the team”. Nobody gains from this.

Image courteously from dilbert.com

Owners of thoroughbreds never stop their horses during a race, every ten seconds, to remind  the horse and jockey how to run, where the finish line is, or that it’d be a good idea to finish first. Why? It would slow them down. Only an idiot would do this.

If you’re a manager, you must assume you have thoroughbreds working for you. Your job is to give them what they need to win their respective races, agreeing with them on the goal  and rewards, but then getting the hell out of the way. Until they start jumping fences or attacking other horses, you have to let them run their race.

Even if you are 30% better at a task than someone who works for you, the time it takes for you to check on them every few hours, and demand approvals over trivial decisions, costs more in lost morale, passion for work, and destruction of self-respect among your staff than the 30% you think you’re adding.  No one works well if they feel they are being treated like an idiot child. Having two people involved in work that should only require one wastes everyone’s time.

But if you are in fact a micromanager, you started over-managing the day you started. You have  no idea of the potential of the people who work for you

An easy test of micromanagement is to let your team know you are confident in their ability to do their job and offer, if they wish, that you will be less involved in their day to day work to give them more room to perform. Tell them you are available if they need you, but otherwise you will put some of your attention elsewhere. See what happens. Hold your tongue. Don’t demand to review that email. Don’t insist on regulating who can meet with who. Take one small step backward and see what happens.

Your best employees will be happier and more productive, giving you new energy to invest in the rest of your work or more afternoons where you can head home early. Some of your team might surprise you, and thrive with more autonomy. And for those who fail to improve or make mistakes, you’ve lost nothing, as you can step back in where it’s actually needed.

Perhaps you’re afraid to admit your people can function quite well without your approval or input on every stupid little thing. Or it could be you are proof of the peter principle, and would be happier and more useful if you stopped managing and worked solo.

Good managers are brave, and generous with trust in their people. The want them to mature in their judgment and grow in their skills, preferring to err on the side of trusting too much than trusting too little. They take pleasure in letting go and giving power away to their staff, accepting that when someone who works for them shines, they shine too.

And the best part

Hugs and kisses,

Signed,

The people you are micromanaging

I am a hard fan of Scott Berkun especially because of great essays and his book “The Art of Project Management” (it has a new updated version called “Making things happen”) which is one of the best management books I’ve ever read. Trust me, it doesn’t contain any bullshits. It talking about the common stuffs in Project management with common sense.

This time I am really interest to quote about his new article in posted in his Blog “How to keep your mouth shut?” Why I am quoting this here because this is a common problem we face including myself  in our day to day life. At least I am experienced few things he mentioned in his blog post.

As a rule, if you insist on speaking your mind, you will inevitably find yourself in an environment where everyone hates you.  Most people can not handle the truth. And the more you shove it in their face, the easier it is for them to ignore you. You simply become the person who always complains, rendering any good ideas you have entirely impotent. Your ideas will be shot down simply because of the reputation of the mouth they come from.

When you’re working under good teams you will get applauded regardless of the senior audience. But he talks about the time where he worked in a team where no one spoke their mind in public.  Few people worked hard or asked tough questions. Quality of work, and morale, was low.

In this kind of situation people may consider your view points as wrong or arrogant.

If you don’t know the angle being played, anything you say might ruin the plan.

This is a great rule to follow before you raise objections or offer big ideas. No matter how right you are, if you care about effecting change, you should never open your mouth without some sense of who will agree with you and who won’t.  If you can anticipate the angles and responses, and judge, even by guessing, if there is a 80%, 20% or 0% percent chance anyone in good standing will follow your lead in support of what you say, you know whether it’s worth opening your mouth. It’s a world of difference of perception when someone respected says, after you speak, “he might be right” and when there’s only silence. And of course, in most cases your percentages go up if you raise your objections in private, rather than in a large meeting where egos are at stake.

We must have experienced situations where our words took in wrong sense. May be we’re talking or raising the hands when we are foreseeing some issues, dealing with BS management, poor tracking, planning, unrealistic estimations and schedule. But remember, someone more powerful than you should have to agree with what you’re saying, otherwise the situation comes like your words got misinterpreted. Trust me, it’s hard to convince your seniors and you will have to do your homework on how to convince them if you’re seeing some wrong or may we need to understand ourselves why such a decision has been made. For this Berkun has another interesting essay – How to survive bad managers?

If you’re saying something, just think twice whether it’s gonna be respected or agreed by your audience. If we’re feeling our ideas or opinions are great, we should have the convince the audience about your view point. Our actions and images are the core things behind these acceptance. If you’re having a bad track record it simply hard get proved unless you’re introducing something great to change the status quo.

On the other hand(receiving end), we’re not comfortable in changing the coziness we’ve, sometimes even if realize it’s a mistake. In the classic book code complete Steve McConnel says -

Any fool can defend his or her mistakes—and most fools do —Dale Carnegie

If a person refuses to admit a mistake, the only person she’ll fool is herself. Everyone else will learn that they’re working with a prideful programmer (person) who’s not completely honest. That’s a more damning fault than making a simple error. If you make a mistake, admit it quickly and emphatically.

The post is still incomplete because these kind of things may vary from people to situation. Some good related essays from Scott is here.

• Why smart people defend bad ideas
• How to pitch an idea
• How to survive a bad manager
• Why you must lead or follow
• How to give and receive criticism

[Updated 2009-10-13 12.00 Noon JST]

Fixed typos. reduced the usage of BS (Sometimes I forgetting I am not an American

Set yourself free from anything that might hinder you in becoming the person you want to be. Free yourself from the uncertainties about your abilities or the worth of your dreams, from the fears that you may not be able to achieve them or that they won’t be what you wanted.

Set yourself free from the past. The good things from yesterday are still yours in memory; the things you want to forget you will, for tomorrow is only a sunrise away. Free yourself from regret or guilt, and promise to live this day as fully as you can.

Set yourself free from the expectations of others, and never feel guilty or embarrassed if you do not live up to their standards. You are most important to yourself; live by what you feel is best and right for you. Others will come to respect your integrity and honesty.

Set yourself free to simply be yourself, and you will soar higher than you’ve ever dreamed.

- Edmund O’Neill

If you’re a professional software developer, you might have faced various types of project managers. Some of them might be non technical project managers while some other are came from technical background who are 10 years behind the times. It’s hard to have technically competent and technically current managers.

Peter Principle also comes in the picture some times, In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.

There’s a short and interesting paragraph on “Managing your Managers” the classic book Code Complete 2.

Managing your manager means, telling your managers what’s the best thing we can do in the particular situation. At the same time you’ve to give him a feeling that you’re still being managed.

The book suggests following tips.

• Plant your ideas for what you want to do and let’s wait for managers decide what you should do after having a brainstorm.
• Educate your manager on the right way of doing things. It’s often happening because the managers are often promoted, transferred or sometimes fired J
• Focus on your manager’s interests, what he really wants to do. Never distract him by talking too much on implementation details.
• Refuse to do what your manager tells you and insist on doing your job in the right way.
• Find another job

Those are the quick tips on the topic. I’m particularly interested in the 3^rd topic. It’s frequently happening with every projects. In most of the cases your managers and project leads will not too much involved in your implementation details. Often the developers tend to have describing each and everything they’ve implemented as an answer for 10 marks essay to his manager. If your manager is ignorant about a particular technology or technique, never let their brain burn with confusions. Give high level details on the problems.

On the other side, I recommend the managers for not too much involve in the technical matters if they don’t have any grips in that. Because this will make the developers irritated and has to spend too much time for explaining things.

On the 4^th point, it’s really hard to do. Refusing the things have said by your manager. But if you diplomatically handle that your good ideas will cherish and will do well for your project. You should not blindly refuse to do things, give appropriate reasons and provide solutions for the problems. Thus, don’t provide lame excuse, provide alternative better solution.

Finally everything depends upon the attitude of the managers to accept the inputs from juniors or developers. Some managers are too arrogant their pride will never allow them to accept good things. Such kind of managers are hard “manage”. Without power, human being is nothing. You will suffer especially if a fool get power and have control over you. So the last option is to find another job.

Think twice, give options for your managers for the good will of the project. Also don’t forget to give a feeling that you’re still being managed by him or her(even virtually you’re above).

I’m true fan of the book “The Pragmatic Programmer”. The advices and analogies in the book is truly helpful to become a pragmatic programmer.

The book explains the importance of managing your knowledge portfolio as an investor does his investment.

• Invest Regularly – Even it’s very small time, invest your time in learning resources regularly.
• Diversify – The more different things you know, the more valuable you’re. Spend time for learning new multiple technologies
• Manage Risk – Don’t put all your technical eggs in one basket.
• Buy low, sell high – be the early adopter of technology. They will be toppers in the field.
• Review and rebalance – brush up the technologies that you’ve not used in a while

The authors expects few goals from the above guidelines

• Learn at least one new language every year
• Read technical books each quarter
• Read non technical books too
• Take classes at your local community college or university
• Participate in local user groups
• Experiment with different environments like linux, windows, mac etc…
• Stay up to date with technology with right subscriptions for magazines and journals (e.g DDJ )
• Get wired with the latest updates from news groups, papers from web etc…

It’s truly worth reading. Go and get a copy!

My Googling for a story told by B.S Warrier , returned another interesting article related on effective reading, posted in daily “The Hindu”. Here’s the content published in the original article.

Barriers to rapid reading

B.S. WARRIER

These are the main habits and practices that slow down your reading speed.

Photo: m. periyasamy

let it flow: Develop good reading habits early on.

There is no really insurmountable barrier

save our own inherent weakness of purpose.

— Kin Hubbard, American Humorist

You want to read fast. But there would be several impediments, mostly in the form of poor reading habits. Unless you consciously fight and overcome them, you may not be able to move forward.

•Reading word by word

This is how everyone started reading. But you have to come out of the habit and start seeing group of words, if you want to increase the speed. Also, reading word by word hampers comprehension.

Try the following sentence. Read each word aloud in the same tone, one word at a time.

The / habit / of / reading / word / by / word / is / a / serious / stumbling / block / in / enhancing / reading / speed / and / improving / comprehension.

You were slow in reading, and you failed to grasp the idea contained in the sentence.

Now try to read the same sentence as groups of words.

The habit of reading word by word / is a serious stumbling block / in enhancing reading speed / and / improving comprehension.

The logical grouping of words enhanced your reading speed and helped in comprehension. The idea contained in the text becomes clear only when you appreciate the relationship among the words. Remember, you read with the mind in unison with the eyes, and not by eyes alone. You must have noted that the tone differs from word to word when you read as word groups. A word flows into the next. There is a rhythm. Each word does not stop abruptly.

•Regression

If too much of regression has become a habit, despite the reader’s fine level of comprehension, a deliberate effort should be made to get rid of it. Elimination of habitual regression is possible, if you have the will to undergo reading practice with this goal in view. If, however, the text contains too many unfamiliar words, the construction of the sentences is roundabout or the ideas are hard to follow, you may have to regress to some extent.

•Faulty reading

Many people have defective visual perception; they would read one word for another – change for charge, sail for tail, censor for censure, industrial for industrious, Rome for roam, top for pot and so on. This leads to confusion in comprehension and consequent regression, slowing down reading. If it is a case of sheer carelessness, better concentration will help. If rapid word recognition is not being facilitated, drills in recognition should be attempted.

•Defective return sweep

Check how your eyes travel from the end of a line to the beginning of the next. If they move back horizontally along the line and then vertically drop to the start of the next line, there is room for correction. Train your eyes to travel diagonally from the end of a line to the beginning of the next. This will save the time for the return sweep almost to half. Frequently check and confirm that the new habit has taken roots in your system.

•Reading aloud

This seriously affects your reading speed. Though you can think quickly, your mind has to wait till the lips and the tongue have finished the movements to read out the passage. The pace of the loud reading would be constant. You do not spend more time for assimilating a tough idea; nor do you skip an easy passage that contains no new knowledge. Further, it would be hard for you to read aloud continuously for a few hours, since you would become tired.

If you allow your lips to move for reading, you can hardly exceed the speed of 150 words per minute. A good silent reader can easily go up to 350 words per minute or more.

You get a wrong impression that the passage has been learnt, when you finish reading it aloud once; the truth may be otherwise. Making a noise is different from grasping and idea.

Sometimes a reader may not be making a sound, but would be moving the lips and tongue as when reading aloud. This form of vocalisation also slows down your reading. If you go for silent reading, you can read fast and control your reading speed to suit the difficulty level of the passage.

A careful silent reader would have assimilated the ideas when he finishes the reading. The flexibility in silent reading enables him to read fast, with the speed of reading regulated in tune with the complexity of the passage. Even skimming through the passage could be done whenever possible.

There are instances where you have to read aloud, as when you are trying to improve your pronunciation or when you are enjoying the charms of poetry.

•Sub-vocalisation

In this, there is no movement of the lips, tongue or vocal cords. But you go on speaking to your inner self. You speak every word to yourself and listen to it. You ‘hear’ each word.

When you were learning to read, you used to hear physically every word. But that tradition should not be carried forward indefinitely. A fluent reader does not have to hear the words, either physically or in the head. He can see groups of words and grasp their meaning, without hearing them.

It is true that all would sub-vocalise at times. But that should be occasional and not a routine. If you are in the habit of sub-vocalisation, gradually bring it down, and see how you progress in increasing the reading speed. If you attempt to stop sub-vocalisation in one go, you would experience difficulty in comprehension. It has therefore to be a phased process.

•Finger pointing

This slows down the speed terribly. Though your eyes can travel fast, they are held down by the slow speed of the finger that rests on each word progressively. You can read only one word at a time. Some people move a pencil or pointer along the line of the print, as a guide to reading. No good reader should go for such a crutch.

•Head swinging

This is a habit shown even by very
educated persons. They swing the head from one fixation to the next or from one line to the next. There is no need for the head to move; the eyes can travel independently. They require no help from the swinging neck. After all, the swinging will cause muscular fatigue, and force you to stop reading after a short period.

Head swinging does not add to the reading speed. Unless someone else points out this defect, you may carry on with it, at the expense of your reading speed. Change the habit through conscious effort.

via The Hindu

Today I got an E-Mail forward from my friend. I don’t know whether this written by W.Buffet. But still it’s worth reading especially in this time of financial crisis.

We begin this New Year with dampened enthusiasm and dented optimism. Our happiness is diluted and our peace is threatened by the financial illness that has infected our families, organizations and nations.
Everyone is desperate to find a remedy that will cure their financial illness and help them recover their financial health. They expect the financial experts to provide them with remedies, forgetting the fact that it is these experts who created this financial mess.
Every new year, I adopt a couple of old maxims as my beacons to guide my future. This self-prescribed therapy has ensured that with each passing year, I grow wiser and not older. This year, I invite you to tap into the financial wisdom of our elders along with me, and become financially wiser.
Hard work: All hard work brings profit; but mere talk leads only to poverty.
Laziness: A sleeping lobster is carried away by the water current.
Earnings: Never depend on a single source of income.
Spending: If you buy things you don’t need, you’ll soon sell things you need.
Savings: Don’t save what is left after spending; spend what is left after saving.
Borrowings: The borrower becomes the lender’s slave.
Accounting: It’s no use carrying an umbrella, if your shoes are leaking.
Auditing: Beware of little expenses; a small leak can sink a large ship.
Risk-taking: Never test the depth of the river with both feet.
Investment: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

I’m certain that those who have already been practicing these Principles remain financially healthy. I’m equally confident that those who resolve to start practicing these principles will quickly regain their financial health.
Let us become wiser and lead a happy, healthy, prosperous and Peaceful life.

Warren Buffet

He might be one of the best actors, king of comedy, the actor I admire and respect a lot. It’s nobody else but Jagathy Sreekumar.

Last Saturday I was there at Asianet Film Awards 2009 ceremony at Chandrasekharan Nair stadium Trivandrum. Jagathy won the popular actor award  and during his speech he shared 3 notable quotes from his mom, who passed away last year. Those were

1. You have to give everything to your wife

2. Don’t give anything to your mother.

3. Kill your father.

He explained this in a nice way.

Your wife depends you and if she asks you something and get it for her as you’re a perfect husband,

Don’t give a chance for your mom to ask you something as she’s your only mother and greatness of her role in your life. Give everything possible and keep her happy in her entire life.

You have to kill or make a better fame, money,status and whatever you can possible to do better than your father.

He started this as advices to Vineeth Sreenivasn who won the best new comer award. Vineeth’s father Sreenivasan is another good actor, comedian, script writer and director. I believe this was true inspiration for Vineeth and rest of us.

I got a mail forwarded by my friend. It’s really refreshes,mentor and giving pace for my day.

An excerpt from the book Leadership Wisdom from The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

“I am a leader. My life will not be defined by my title or my salary or my station. It will be defined by the actions I take and the legacy I leave through the leadership I show. I also understand that the greatest privilege of leadership is the chance to elevate lives and I am committed to adding value to the lives around me both at work and at home.

I vow to integrate the following 8 Leadership Rituals into my days:

1.      I will Link My Paycheck with My Purpose. I will remember that the deepest of all human needs is the need to live for something more important than ourselves and to contribute in a meaningful way to others. Therefore, I will stay focused on the higher meaning of the work that I do and how it improves the lives of human beings.

2.      I will Manage By Mind But Lead By Heart. When I show leadership at work, it will be through my heart. I will keep my promises. I will listen deeply, I will be consistently compassionate and I will be fanatically honest. Through the strength of my character and the quality of my actions, I will build deep relationships built on trust and respect. This will be a great source of my success.

3.      I will Reward Routinely and Recognize Relentlessly. Every one of us has a core human craving to be appreciated and honored. I will remember that behavior that is rewarded is behavior that will be repeated. I will sincerely praise work well done and be a great coach at work (and at home).

4.      I will Surrender to Change. The pace of change will never slow down, only speed up. Therefore, I vow to get good at being uncomfortable. I will not be complacent but will love change and risk and growth. I will never forget that, at the end of my life, what I will regret the most will not be all the risks I took but all the risks I did not take and all the fears I did not face.

5.      I will Focus on the Worthy and Concentrate on the Essentials. Time is my most precious commodity and I will use it well. I will reflect on the best uses of my time and energy and invest those only in activities which will advance the leadership vision that I have committed to. I will keep asking myself this question: "Is what I am doing now, the best possible use of my time and talents?" If not, I will have the wisdom to say no to it and refocus on a better activity.

6.      I will remember that Leadership On the Outside Must First Begin Within.. I cannot lead a team until I first lead myself. I will dedicate myself to a daily 30 minute period of renewal. I will care for my mind, body and character and keep developing my human talents. I will live by a standard of excellence and strive for mastery in all that I do.

7.      I will See What All See But Think What None Think. I will be creative and "run my own race". I know that, in this new knowledge-based economy, ideas are the currency of success. So I will stretch my mind and always see possibility where others see adversity. I will associate with other visionary thinkers and never forget that, ultimately, my thoughts form my world.

8.      I will Link My Leadership with My Legacy. I will remember that greatness comes by beginning something that does not end with me. I will go the extra mile in every thing I do and try and make a lasting difference in the lives of other people through my daily actions. I will leave this world a better place. I am important and I will have an impact.”

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